ERBIL — Once again on Saturday night, crops in the disputed Kurdish areas of Diyala and Salahaddin provinces were set on fire.

Fire incidents became the most frequently reported events in Iraqi media across May and June of 2019, the harvesting season in Iraq. The great number of the fire incidents raised concerns about Iraq’s agriculture sector and food security since $542 million worth of wheat and barley farms in 16 provinces of Iraq was smoked into the sky.

Head of the local administration of Zinana subdistrict of Kifri, Jamal Salih, told BasNews on Sunday that acres of farms belonging to Kurdish farmers were burned overnight on Saturday, causing massive damages.

BasNews has learned that the incidents had taken place in the villages of Nallashiken and Dawooda, near Tuz Khurmatu.

“Firefighters had to work hard until the early in the morning today to control the blazes,” Salih added.

Meanwhile, similar incidents were reported from the agricultural lands of Diyala province, near the disputed Kurdish town of Khanaqin.

Diyar Shamawat, the chief of Khanaqin police, confirmed the report to BasNews and revealed that separate blazes had burned the Kurdish farms in the villages of Yousif Beg and Mobaraka.

The reported fire incidents between May and June 2019 destroyed at least 62,000 acres of wheat and barley farms across the country, and the biggest portion of the incidents occurred in the areas disputed between the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the federal government of Iraq.

BasNews